


The Extinguished Candle

by LeftyVoyager



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-22
Updated: 2015-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-08 11:32:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5495576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeftyVoyager/pseuds/LeftyVoyager
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, there's no good explanation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Extinguished Candle

**Author's Note:**

> Recently lost a co-worker unexpectedly, so I wanted to write something that expressed what that might be like if it happened on Voyager.

He wasn't a high ranking officer. He didn't often come in and save the day. He was seldom on her radar.

But he was a member of her crew, and she knew him. She had seen reports he had written. He acknowledged her with a smile and a nod in the corridors. He had many friends amongst the crew. She met with him quarterly, as she did every crewman she didn't have regular contact with. He had hopes, dreams, family at home.

His wife. How would she tell his wife? His regular communication with her was scheduled for tomorrow. The captain would be there instead. It would be jarring, shocking, awkward, and then devastating.

What would she tell her? He didn't die in battle, defending the ship. He died on the operating table. An infection caused by a routine procedure. A nasty Delta Quadrant infection that Voyager didn't have a defense for. The Doctor was inconsolable. His friends were in shock, reeling. It shouldn't happen in this day and age. But in the Delta Quadrant, anything could and often did happen.

No one on her ship is supposed to die. But this particular scenario seemed even more impossible than most to her.

She sent a brief memo to the senior officers and pictured how the news would ripple through the ship. How her crew would stop in their tracks, stunned and numb just like her as each officer stopped what he was doing to read her note.

It didn't take long for the Ready Room door to open without a chime. She could hardly move from her place by the viewport.

"Kathryn, I'm sorry," he said, simply. It was Chakotay.

"How?" she asked the stars. But she knew how it happened. She understood the science. It was part of the risk they all faced every day.

He walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. She reached up and squeezed it in response.

She knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate today. But she was the captain, and everyone else's journey was still continuing. She took a shaky breath while her stomach felt like it was in knots.

"I feel sick," admitted Chakotay.

"Me too," she agreed.

She continued to stare out into the stars. She imagined them as flickering candles, each one representing a member of the crew that she stranded here. One of those candles went out today. A light that she was responsible for was gone, forever. But she couldn't lose sight of the other lights that were still burning, for she couldn't let any more go out. Tomorrow, she would redouble her efforts to get her crew home.

The end.


End file.
